This invention relates to a slip resistant disposable shoe cover.
In today's hospital operating rooms, sanitary disposable shoe covers are an important link in the maintenance of hygenic conditions. The shoe covers prevent contamination of the wearer's shoe, and equally as important, the covers prevent contamination of the sterilized operating room environment by the wearer's shoe.
Modern operating rooms generally have smooth floor surfaces, substantially absent of crevices or irregularities in which dirt and germs can accumulate. This facilitates the effort to keep the operating room sanitized. However, smooth floors can pose serious hazards.
Conventional disposable shoe covers are generally made of non-woven fabrics, e.g. polypropylene fabrics. The fabric is cut to form a blank. The edges of the blank are then sewn together to form an elongated, sock-shaped bag, with an opening near one end for the insertion of the wearer's foot. Narrow strips of elastic material are stretched and sewn in as integral parts of the seams. The elastic strips yieldingly gather the material of the shoe cover along the seams, and serve to hold the shoe cover snugly about the wearer's shoe. The main advantages of this design are softness, lightweight, comfort, low cost, and availability of material.
However, non-woven fabrics generally afford little slip resistance. The medical personnel performing the operation usually have to stand for hours on their feet; which also means that they are standing on the fabric of the shoe covers which fit over their shoes. Therefore surefootedness has been a problem in operating rooms. The problem is at the same time physical and psychological. When you need steady hands in performing a delicate procedure, and yet you cannot be sure of your footing, the hazard to the patient is obvious.
Efforts have been taken to solve this problem, mainly by one of two methods. This first is by incorporating a non-slip bottom on the disposable shoe cover. However, this method requires complicated manufacturing procedures, and increases the cost of the shoe cover to where it is not price competitive. The added weight and stiffness of the non-skid bottom also reduced comfort to the wearer.
The other method involves using a non-slip sheet material to form the blank. Non-woven fabrics coated with a non-skid coating have been used. For example, Du Pont Co. markets such as non-skid fabric under the name Tyvek.TM.. However, non-skid fabrics are expensive. Furthermore, because non-skid fabrics are generally not as soft as uncoated fabrics, the shoe covers made of non-skid fabrics can be uncomfortable.
What is needed is a slip-resistant disposable shoe cover which is low in cost and easy to manufacture, makes use of readily available materials, and is comfortable to wear.